continuously changing, including where someone is looking and parts of the body that signal power and sexual availability. The American neuroscientist Michael Platt carried out a clever series of experiments to understand how much male rhesus monkeys value different kinds of social information and how much they will pay to obtain it. As in our discussion of wanting and liking, Platt nghtly assumed that rhesus monkeys would value most what they like most, and that they would pay the highest price for what they are most motivated to acquire.
Each monkey watched a slide show with viewing options akin to pay-per-view television. Ona given trial, they could watch one of two images for as long as they liked, each viewing option associated with a particular amount of juice. For each pair of images, one delivered more juice than the other. Given that these were thirsty monkeys , they should prefer more juice over less juice. If monkeys have no interest in the images per se — because they have no value — then their viewing preferences should be strictly determined by where they can get the most juice. If, on the other hand, the images have value, and some images are more valuable than others, then they may be willing to look at an image that delivers less juice over an image that delivers more. This is costly viewing. This is paying for watching. Evidence for such preferences would reveal that rhesus monkeys value the social information that comes from the image over the juice itself, a surprising result given that juice is a primary reward whereas the image is only a secondary reward, indicative of things to come.
Consistently, these male monkeys had two favorite channels, preferring those showing pictures of high ranking individuals and close-ups of female hindquarters. They preferred these over images of low ranking individuals, despite the fact that this choice often cost them the opportunity to drink more juice.
Platt's findings show that monkeys are motivated to acquire information about socially relevant situations, including information about dominance and sex. Their motivation or desire to obtain this information is high, as evidenced by the fact that they are willing to pay acost. Keeping an eye ona dominant is of value as dominants pose a threat, especially one staring at you. Keeping an eye on a female’s hindquarters is also of value as it can signal sexual receptivity: in rhesus monkeys, as in many other monkeys and apes, the area around the vagina either swells, turns red, or both when females are ovulating. This is important information for males in their attempts to court and mate females. I will quickly pass over the potential implication of these results for thinking about the origins of pornography.
Humans also value social information, with many hours in a day devoted to obtaining such information through gossip. Many of us live in a world where dominance matters, whether it is climbing to the top of a corporate chain or attaining the title of heavyweight champion of the world. Individuals seek high status because of the physical and health benefits that accrue. In such societies, our sense of self is based on our comparison with others. It is also based on a strong sense of independence,
autonomy, assertiveness, and uniqueness. In other societies, the self dissolves into the other, with an
Hauser Chapter 2. Runaway desire 65
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_012811